The Stooge/ notes on writing

I finished a short story. It's called The Stooge, and it's not very good. I am not fishing for compliments with this, there IS an awful lot wrong with this story. Firstly it is very over-long and needs some savage editing. I do my best work when I'm tidying things up- so much so that the initial writing of a story is often only a framework, a necessary hump to get over before I can start the more enjoyable work (for me) of some polishing. This story was also an exercise in starting and finishing something against a deadline, even if it was something that worked best only as an idea (truth be told, I got bored of writing this early on. I do that a lot). But I set myself a task and I finished it, so a big shiny medal for me, and a story to read for you:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AbGepPqkfWHSZGhxZ2RrNmRfMWd2bnE1NGRo&hl=en

If I were you (and boy, do I ever wish), I would copy and paste it into MS Word, and then block it and double space it. It'll mess up the speech a bit, but never mind.

Notes on the names: I only make up names for characters that have an ongoing significance for me. When I'm doing a writing exercise, I just unashamedly thieve them from other sources. 'Stephen Katz' was the pseudonym of Bill Bryson's funny but slightly unbalanced travel companion in 'Neither Here Nor There,' an excellent and well paced travelogue. Most of the other names are comic book characters (I do that a lot too). Try and spot them all... if you're some sort of obsessive.

If you have any thoughts on the story, email me at verbalslaptick@gmail.com and let me know. One thing, I need help with plotting, sentence structure and characterisation- proof reading is not required. This piece is probably FULL of mistakes, but I only finished it five minutes ago and can't be bothered to read over it, so I don't consider it a big deal.

In other news, I'll try and get a post done in the middle of the week, to say thanks for waiting on me.